Development and Implementation of a Thinking-Style Assessment Tool for Enhancing Creativity

Abstract

Creativity is the foundation of discovery and innovation. Creativity refers to the process of thinking out of conventional frame of reference/pattern and generating new ideas for new products, services or solutions. Therefore, thinking is the core activity in creativity, namely creative thinking. However, thinking styles vary from people to people. Some thinking styles enhance creativity while others may hinder creativity. What are the thinking styles of Hong Kong university students and what are the implications for teaching and learning creativity, innovation and discovery? There is nearly no such empirical research reported since university students rarely have the chance to assess their thinking styles. Although there are professional thinking style assessment package available in the market, they are very complicated and extremely expensive, up to HK$30,000 in a 2-3 days’ workshop. This project aims to develop a simplified thinking assessment tool particularly for university students to understand their thinking styles with a view to enhance their creativity. The project will start with literature review and identify a set of potential assessing criteria and then empirical screening them to an operational package. It will then be implemented in the courses on creativity, discovery and innovation that the PI are teaching (e.g., GE2304).